DAWN will participate in the first session of the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ), which will take place at the UN Headquarters in New York on September.
This historical new treaty will be the third global governance mechanism under UNCLOS, but the first aimed specifically at protecting marine biological diversity in the high seas. There are complex challenges and conflicting interests in the process to negotiate for the health of the ocean that balances conservation and the use of ocean resources.
DAWN previously attended the Organizational Meeting for this first Conference last April, in partnership with the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG). It is participating with a view to engage in the process of contributing to the negotiations on the text of the Treaty, which will take place over four intergovernmental Conferences (the second and third sessions will take place in 2019, and the fourth session in the first half of 2020).